Public Policy Commons^™

On The Agenda, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This newsletter goes to press just as Millennium Mania is reaching its fever pitch. If my own dismissive attitude toward the doom-sayers turns out to be warranted, our computers have not collapsed, the sky has not fallen, and our newsletter has reached your address intact. Of course there's been more to the millennial madness than apocalyptic anxieties and mega-marketing opportunities for products and services of all sorts and sizes. The obsession with Y2K— which represents only one of the world's calendar systems, after all— has also marked the way in which a particular religious view increasingly passes for the secular …

Vol. 22 No. 3-4 (1999): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Introduction: Defining And Understanding Sustainability In Small Island States, Charles J. Stevens

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Sustainable, The Expendable, And The Obsolete, Michael D. Lieber

Pacific Studies

This is a preliminary exploration of the concept of sustainability and its potential usefulness to anthropologists. “Sustainable” is distinguished from “stable” and “viable” in terms of its implications of directionality of time, pointing both backward and forward. Given the time implications, the contexts of “sustainable Xs” (technology, activity, development, etc.) are crucial to explaining what happened to X in the past and prognosticating its future. The argument is illustrated by analyzing data on obsolete fishing practices on Kapingamarangi Atoll (Federated States of Micronesia), focusing on the contexts of change in political /religious organization in the twentieth century. Changing access to …

Development, Sustainability, And The Deforestation Of Samoa, Paul Shankman

Pacific Studies

The forests of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) are rapidly disappearing. This article reviews the history of Samoan deforestation, particularly during the last four decades, in the context of ideas about development and sustainability. It also examines the role of village agriculturalists in the process of deforestation. Recent economic, technological, and organizational changes have increased village agricultural expansion and, consequently, deforestation.

Legislating A Sustainable Land Ethic For New Zealand, Michèle D. Dominy

Pacific Studies

This article explores competing discourses of sustainability in New Zealand’s South Island. As active resource managers, high-country pastoralists’ conception of “country” contests predominant reductive and binary models of production/ conservation and economic resource/visual resource and suggests a more complicated dynamic between scientific and cultural paradigms of sustainability than has been acknowledged. This dynamic is captured in the internationally driven top-down concept of equitable sustainable land management with a dual commitment to both cultural and ecological diversity as defined locally, formulated as part of the United Nations Rio Declaration of 1992, agenda 21, chapter 13. I examine an emergent high-country “land …

Contributors: Vol 22 No. 3-4, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Contributors list of Vol. 22 (1999): Pacific Studies Full Issue 3-4

Accounting For Change: Bringing Interdependence Into Defining Sustainability, Karen L. Nero

Pacific Studies

“Sustainability,” the key word of international development bodies currently intervening in the restructuring of the Marshall Islands economy, is defined within Western economic conceptualizations. I argue that such characterizations are incomplete: they fail to capture the full nature of the ongoing Marshallese economy by focusing too narrowly on transfers related to the Compact of Free Association and by their partial understanding of Marshallese food systems and easy dichotomies between imported and local foods. The segregation of external interventions by sector further distorts their possible impact. Structural imbalances within the Marshallese and other Pacific nations’ economies have been exacerbated by the …

Shrinking Kin Networks In Italy Due To Sustained Low Fertility, Cecilia Tomassini, Douglas A. Wolf

Center for Policy Research

Among the closely watched demographic trends of the late 20th Century is a pronounced drop in fertility rates throughout much of the world. Italy presents a particularly interesting case for study: in 1960, Italy’s total fertility rate (TFR) was 2.41; by 1995 it had fallen to 1.17. According to United Nations projections, by 2050 Italy will be the second oldest country in the world, with 3.4 persons aged 60 or older for each person under age 15. Besides overall population aging, another implication of sustained low fertility is smaller families and kin groups. We investigate the consequences of projected changes …

Globalization, Stateless Capitalism, And The International Political Economy Of Tonga’S Satellite Venture, Anthony Van Fossen

Pacific Studies

Globalization has led some Pacific Islands countries into ventures that use their sovereignty to advance private interests against regulation by metropolitan states. Tongasat, Tonga’s innovative satellite enterprise, is one such recent initiative in “stateless” capitalism that has deep structural similarities with flags of convenience and offshore tax havens. The microstate has claimed a disproportionate percentage of geostationary slots and succeeded in filling a number of them. Tongasat’s emergence is analyzed in terms of the contemporary world-system, declining U.S. hegemony over the global satellite regime (creating opportunities for independent entrepreneurs), and the end of the cold war (making inexpensive Russian satellites …

Public Participation In Clark County, Nevada: An Analysis Of Public Participation In The Land Use Planning Process, Fred R. Turnier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper explores public participation as determined through three land use planning case studies in Clark County, Nevada. Chapter One outlines the existing conditions for public participation and introduces a set of questions to be explored. Chapter Two defines the scope and methodology employed in the research. Chapter Three is a literature review for levels of public participation. The next Chapter discusses statutory requirements for planning and formal public participation. Further, Chapter Four outlines the events leading up to a revised planning participation process and implementation in three land use plan updates. Finally, Chapter Four explores themes derived through the …

A Comparative Assessment Of The Status, Structure And Process Utilized By Nevada's Family Support And Preservation Consortia To Achieve Collaboration, Marlys A. Morton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper presents a framework for understanding inter-organizational collaboration and describes and analyzes how collaboration was used as a method to build new service networks, the characteristics of the consortia, and the status of the collaborative processes.

Although the literature on inter-organizational collaboration in the human services is increasing, little is known about how regional consortia view the process of working together towards a common purpose. The results reported in this paper are intended to help fill that gap.

The findings reported in this study are based on a survey process using a standardized questionnaire to study the collaborative status. …

Chiefs For The Nation: Containing Ethnonationalism And Bridging The Ethnic Divide In Fiji, Robert Norton

Pacific Studies

Chiefship, a central element of indigenous Fijian society valorized and transformed under colonial rule, is becoming a crucial part of a national political culture for multiethnic Fiji. The collective status and authority of chiefs in Fiji’s political life is grounded not simply in the part they have played in expressing opposition between indigenous Fijians and the descendants of the immigrant Indians, but also in a paradoxical function they have acquired in bridging ethnic conflict. This dual ethnic and national identity was affirmed and reinforced by their endorsement of the recent constitutional reform. This article suggests that in its capacity to …

Lin Poyer's Review Of David Hanlon's Remaking Micronesia: Discourses Over Development In A Pacific Territory, Lin Poyer

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Rebecca A. Stephenson's Review Of Jan Rensel And Margaret Rodman's Home In The Islands: Housing And Social Change In The Pacific, Rebecca A. Stephenson

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Environmental Change, Economic Development, And Emigration In Tuvalu, John Connell

Pacific Studies

Growing consensus on the accelerated greenhouse effect indicates that potential increases in both sea levels and tropical storms will pose problems for atoll states, especially Tuvalu. Land areas and water supplies may be threatened by coastal erosion, depleting agricultural and fisheries potential. Tuvalu’s economy is limited and partly reliant on aid and remittances whose sustainability is uncertain. More than a third of the population now lives in overcrowded conditions in the urban center of Funafuti. Population growth has accelerated since independence, despite attempts to implement a population policy, while opportunities for temporary or permanent emigration have not increased. If environmental …

Politics, Pedagogy, And Shaping Public Policy, Jill Dolan

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

We never exactly know when history is going to catch up with us, when we'll be in the midst of a crucial moment to which posterity will refer as key, as significant, as a lynchpin on which other moments, other decisions, other understandings were founded. The impeachment hearings recently conducted in the House of Representatives dragged us all, unwilling and amazed, into a dark hour of American politics, one in which partisan fury and ideological hatred are translated into strategies of power that disregard and reverse electoral politics. There's much to say about the disappointing performance of Bill Clinton as …

Educational Excellence For All Children Act Of 1999, U.S. Department Of Education

Service Learning, General

The President announced that he would shortly send to the Congress the "Educational Excellence for All Children Act of 1999," his proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). This legislation reaffirms the critical role of the Federal Government in working with schools, school districts, and States to promote educational excellence for all children. Every child, parent, grandparent, and taxpayer deserves high quality public schools in their communities.

More specifically, the proposal would build on the 1994 ESEA reauthorization, which established the core principle that disadvantaged children should achieve to the same challenging academic standards as …

The Potential Demographic Impact Of Hiv/Aids In The Pacific, Dennis A. Ahlburg, Heidi J. Larson, Tim Brown

Pacific Studies

The number of HIV infections and cases of AIDS reported in the Pacific Island nations is growing steadily. Since many, if not all, of the risk factors for HIV infection are present in the Pacific, without change in behaviors that place people at risk of infection the potential exists for an HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article shows that such an epidemic would considerably increase mortality and slow but not reverse population growth in many Pacific Island countries. As yet, well-designed, multisectoral responses to the threat of an epidemic are lacking. The longer such responses are delayed, the larger will be the …

Contributors: Vol 21 No. 3, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Contributors list of Vol. 21 (1998): Pacific Studies Full Issue 3

Vol. 21 No. 3 (1998): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

William C. Clarke's Review Of R. Gerard Ward And Elizabeth Kingdon's Land, Custom, And Practice In The South Pacific, William C. Clarke

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Working Wrongly And Seeking The Straight: Remedial Remedies On Enewetak Atoll, Laurence Marshall Carucci

Pacific Studies

Classical approaches to righting wrongs among Pacific societies have been couched in terms of normative models of authority, and particularly in relation to societies with positions of ascribed authority, chiefs, and those with acquired authority like Melanesian center persons (“big-men”). In this article, I contend that typological approaches to the analysis of perceived wrongdoing are of limited utility in the assessment of how wrongdoing is culturally fashioned and socially redressed. Instead, I suggest that constructions of wrongdoing are culturally relative. Moreover, ideas and feelings about just and unjust action within the community are also relative and depend upon varied logical …

Righting Wrongs On Anuta, Richard Feinberg

Pacific Studies

Apology and compensation are commonly employed to reestablish social harmony when one person causes injury to others, thereby disrupting social order. Here I explore the way in which these mechanisms are utilized by the people of Anuta, a Polynesian outlier in the Solomon Islands. I suggest that compensation and apology need not be counterposed and, in fact, are often intertwined as aspects of a single process. Historical transition from the widespread Polynesian emphasis on rank, respect, collective responsibility, and mutual assistance to a more individualistic and competitive cultural environment has led to changes in Anutan views of right and wrong. …

A Policy Brief: Massachusetts (T)Afdc Case Closings, October 1993-August 1997, Donna Friedman, Emily Douglas, Michelle Hayes, Mary Ann Allard

Center for Social Policy Publications

When a DTA (Department of Transitional Assistance) worker assesses whether a family's (T)AFDC (Temporary Aid to Families with Dependent Children) case will be closed, s/he decides which one of 67 different codes best describes the reason cash benefits for the household will be stopped. To carry out the analyses, we sorted all of the 67 codes into clusters of codes that logically grouped together: Cluster I, Increased Income; Cluster H, Sanctions; Cluster III, Eligible Persons Moved; Cluster IV, Fraud; Cluster V, Client Request; Cluster VI, No Longer Eligible; Cluster VII, Other or Multiple Meanings. The Appendix displays a description of …

Research To Practice: Grant Development And Decision-Making: Comparison Of Funding Agencies And Community-Based Minority Organizations, Institute For Community Inclusion, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This report compares the perspectives of government funding agencies and community-based minority organizations on grant development and decision-making, and gives recommendations on how these groups can work together effectively to fund disability programs.

The Professional Decline Of Physicians In The Era Of Managed Care, Aimee E. Marlow

New England Journal of Public Policy

Physicians have long enjoyed prestige, power, and autonomy, but the rise of managed care organizations has drastically changed their status. Many doctors are in thrall to the financial well-being of the corporations that employ them, their knowledge and expertise controlled and manipulated in the interest of profit maximization. This article investigates the professional decline of physicians, citing the use of gag clauses, incentives to withhold care, and the breakdown of their authority. In an effort to regain some measure of control, physicians have taken their concerns to the public, supporting state and federal legislation that attempts to curb questionable managed …

Armut : Der Mensch Lebt Nicht Vom Brot Allein : Wege Zur Soziokulturellen Existenzsicherung, Isidor Wallimann, Susanne Schmid

Books

While the usual discussion about the poverty of the minimum financial security speaks, the authors ask what it could mean for to be living in a secure socio-cultural minimum. The fact is that poverty can be both "caused" by various forms of exclusion, as well as the socio-cultural exclusion promotes or "causes".

Differentiating Regulation Of Public And Private Institutions: A Preliminary Inquiry, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Twenty years ago, James Q. Wilson and Patricia Rachal argued that government cannot regulate itself. In an era of revived federalism, increased reliance on contractors, and proliferation of quasi-public organizations, the importance of government self-regulation is greater than ever. This paper tests an underlying assumption of Wilson and Rachal's claim: that regulation of public and private organizations can be differentiated. Employing a meta-research design, this pilot study uses existing regulatory case studies to create "regulatory relationship profiles" for public and private organizations. These profiles include information on the structure of the regulator, the intent of the regulation, the enforcement tools …

Improving Workforce Conditions In Private Human Service Agencies: A Partnership Between A Union And Human Service Providers, James Green

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 1995 the Service Employees International Union Local 509 and four Massachusetts human service providers signed an unusual agreement to forge a partnership in which employers would remain neutral while the union approached its workers with an offer to advocate in the state legislature for greater funding for private human service employees and to promote cooperative relations with their employers. This study examines the context of the agreement and the pressures on public employee unions and small human service providers whose workforce copes with low wages, high turnover, meager benefits, and poor public image as well as the give-and-take between …